Bullets first and aid later is a perverse Israeli tactic

Israeli forces fire tear gas at Palestinian protesters who are commemorating the 70th anniversary of Nakba in Gaza on 14 May 2018

By Ramona Wadi

Predictably, Israel has attempted to play the humanitarian card after inflicting severe injuries upon thousands of Palestinians, many of whom will remain scarred for life; at least 111 men, women and children have also been killed by Israeli troops over the past few weeks. On Wednesday, during a lull in their murderous shooting spree, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) sent two truckloads of medical supplies into Gaza. The aid was rejected by Hamas, which only accepted supplies sent by the Palestinian Authority and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Israel sought to frame the refusal within its perverted colonial narrative. “The Hamas terrorist group [sic] on Wednesday refused to accept two shipments of medical supplies for Gaza hospitals, which are struggling with shortages, after seeing they were sent by Israel,” said the Times of Israel.

Also on Wednesday, Haaretz reported Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman declaring Hamas leaders to be “a bunch of cannibals who also treat their own children as ammunition.” The far-right extremist claimed that the IDF “acted in accordance with ethical norms that we have not seen anywhere else in the world.” Both statements are blatant lies which will not gain any truck with most of the international community.

However, Lieberman’s lies serve to promote the false image of a benevolent Israel ready to send humanitarian aid to a vulnerable Palestinian population; such a view would, of course, be for its own propaganda purposes.

Lieberman and those like him fail to mention that the medical crisis in Gaza is just one result of Israel’s 12-year blockade. The health sector in Gaza has been on the verge of collapse for months, if not years, so why only send aid now? The two trucks of medical supplies can only be viewed as an attempt to divert attention from the IDF’s massacre of Palestinians and the suffocating siege against which they were protesting when they were shot and tear-gassed. Bullets first and aid later is simply another perverse Israeli tactic.

Unbelievably, Lieberman’s repugnant rhetoric was actually overshadowed by comments made by Israeli government spokeswoman Michal Maayan to an Irish journalist. When asked why Israel is shooting at Palestinians participating in the Great Return March, she responded, “Well, we can’t put all these people in jail.”

The despicable motive behind the IDF sending aid to Gaza is clear; it is the cheapest way for Israel to restrain the Palestinians’ anti-colonial struggle. Killing them is preferable, proof — if any is needed — that the colonial penchant for exterminating Palestinians has not altered since the Nakba started in 1948. The remote involvement of the Israeli troops – snipers killing and maiming at a range of hundreds of metres – allows Israel to include itself amongst the plethora of observers, thus shifting the focus upon the Palestinians and their protests. However, as in other previous massacres, Israel is trying to occupy a high ground that is neither moral nor supported by international acquiescence to its violence.

Hamas’s refusal to accept IDF aid is a principled stance which is tethered by limitations. There is no denial from Hamas regarding the shortages of medical supplies and it has allowed truckloads to enter Gaza from other organisations which also operate within their own restrictions or, in the PA’s case, collaboration with the occupation. However, accepting IDF aid would have been tantamount to giving a green light to Israeli snipers.

Endless attempts to strip Gaza of its dignity have been in vain. While impoverished, brought to the brink of becoming uninhabitable and treated grotesquely as objects of study to determine the heightened levels of implosion, Palestinians in the enclave are admirably consistent, to the point that Israel’s humanitarian propaganda has been exposed by a simple refusal to allow IDF aid trucks into the enclave. Without denying that the refusal comes at a cost in terms of medical necessities and survival, it is Israel that has forced Palestinians to choose between death and a slow death. They will undoubtedly choose dignity over anything else.